INTERNET GETS GOOFY; NEW DISNEY WEB SERVICE A `GO'.Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer The information superhighway is getting an on-ramp at Main Street. That's because Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Co. and partner Infoseek Corp. are launching their easy-to-remember Go Network ``portal'' service at a coming-out party at ABC Studios ABC Studios is Disney-ABC Television Group's television production company. The company was established as Touchstone Television in 1985 and renamed in May 2007 to its latest inception. in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. today. They plan to lure customers and advertisers from established sites such as Yahoo!! and America Online See AOL. . It's the most aggressive Web move so far by a traditional media giant and, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. analyst Linda Bannister of Edward Jones Edward, Eddie, or Ed Jones is the name of: Edward Jones:
``Just look at the Internet stocks,'' she said. ``People have accepted the idea the Internet will be the next new wave so Disney needs to be there. There's not a lot of money being made but that's not to say there won't be in five years.'' In fact, Disney shareholders got a taste of the Internet mania that has swept through Wall Street recently. Disney shares gained $2.8175 to $35.375 after ING Barings Furman Selz analyst Stewart Halpern said Wall Street wasn't accounting for Disney's ``hidden'' Internet assets such as Go. Infoseek got an even bigger jump, adding $32.675 to finish at $87.75. But just because it's Disney doesn't make it a slam dunk. ``There will only be three to four portal winners and AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. and Yahoo! are ahead of the pack,'' said Forrester Research Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. Corporate facts
Neither Disney nor Infoseek is a Web unknown, ranking eighth and ninth in traffic separately and a strong fourth combined. ``On day one, we're in a dead heat for the three spot with the power of Disney brand names,'' said Barak Berkowitz, senior vice president and general manager of Go Network. Disney, with annual revenues of $22 billion, brings an efficient marketing machine that promotes theme parks, a movie studio, a cruise line A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships. Cruise lines have a dual character; they are partly in the transportation business, and partly in the leisure entertainment business, a duality that carries down into the ships themselves, which have both a crew headed by the , TV networks and plush toys. It plunged into cyberspace in June, swapping $70 million and its own Internet company for 43 percent of Infoseek. ``Just like any of the portals, they're going to have to put a lot of marketing muscle into it to make it successful,'' Bannister said. Disney wants to make it easier to jump to its sites like Disney.com, ESPN.com and ABCNews.com, where consumers can buy Disney goods and receive reinforcement of the brands - another facet in Disney's much-copied ``synergy.'' But directing customers toward those sites is tricky. If the companies' month-old test site is any indication, Disney and Infoseek figures surfers don't want to be overwhelmed by Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse Famous character of Walt Disney's animated cartoons. He was introduced in Steamboat Willie (1928), the first animated cartoon with sound. Mickey was created by Disney, who also provided his high-pitched voice, and was usually drawn by the studio's head animator, and Winnie-the-Pooh every time they hop on Verb 1. hop on - get up on the back of; "mount a horse" bestride, climb on, jump on, mount up, get on, mount move - move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion; "He moved his hand slightly to the right" the Internet. ``It's the right thing to make the name Disney-agnostic,'' Charron said. ``Users and partners might be turned off if the portal were too Disney-centric.'' Berkowitz said Go's key task is to build the brand. ``The Web is about diversity and choice, so Go.com is not a portal for Disney,'' he added. ``There aren't mouse ears all over it.'' The test site offers free e-mail See Internet e-mail service. , stock quotes and ``follow-me'' tabs to move quickly between pages. Go will replace the Infoseek brand with five content areas - news, sports, entertainment, family and money - and 18 channels. Its guardian feature allows parents to block out adult content. ``They have strong properties, strong technology and tremendous off-line marketing so they have all the pieces,'' Charron said. ``But it's tough to cover 20 different channels. It can be expensive to create or license all that.'' The analyst pointed out that many portals lose money. ``Very few have made any money besides Yahoo! or AOL; in many cases, they've lost a lot of money,'' he said. Berkowitz believes building a portal from scratch will pay off because it contains features to cut the mind-numbing delays that make Web-surfing a chore. ``Our view is that the whole portal business happened by accident with one feature becoming popular and the rest of services being bolted on,'' he said. ``So by building from the ground up, it allows the site to be simpler, more powerful with better integrated content.'' The hope is that experienced users will notice improved performance while novices will be attracted by ease of use and highly recognized names. ``Very few people use one portal site,'' Berkowitz said. ``As with TV, people are willing to sample a show from another network, so it's reasonable to pull people from other portals. No one in this business thinks they own customers.'' |
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